Uninvited
by Birchtail
Summary: What if Wally had had second thoughts about letting Artemis go alone on the mission in Depths, and ended up getting killed himself? (For Young Justice Fanfiction Challenges' 1 Word Genre Challenge.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: T for a reason. **

** Also please keep in mind what Artemis' necklace does to her appearance.**

There are a lot of things Wally misses about the Mountain.

The kitchen, with the sweet scent of some kind of baking wafting from it under M'Gann's capable hand. The comfy chairs, a place to sprawl in front of the TV and watch crappy teen movies with M'Gann and good ones with Artemis.

It was these stray insignificant thoughts that passed through Wally's mind as he slowly climbed over the soot-blackened rubble that was Mount Justice. It was hard to keep from falling here, but he knew that if he did fall, it wouldn't hurt.

Nothing did, anymore. The speedster remembered most of it, when he concentrated on finding the little snippets of recollection – images of fire's greedy tongues reflecting on the head of a spear held in the hand of one of the Manta's soldiers. Two tiny pricks of local anaesthetic darts behind his knees, and his face hitting the ground as numbness stole his legs away from him. A sudden spear of pain forcing him to cry out as something sharp sliced between his ribs and pinned him to the ground.

From there, he only remembered drifting.

Whether it was his thoughts or his astral form, already having left his body aided by the Speed Force, he didn't know. But he remembered, in the last few seconds spent _alive,_ moving blood-moistened lips to call for Artemis.

Suffice to say that when she finally fell to her knees in the ash and sand by his side, her name had left his lips for the last time.

He came back to the present as his eyes focused on something in the dust not far away. Something that glinted in the low light of the setting sun. Wally slowly descended from the rock on the edge of the clearing which he had been climbing down from, brushing nonexistent dust off his costume as he came. For some reason, he stayed in costume after his death, which was strange, considering how he'd been sure he wanted the civilian life before he went.

But he had known that night, after Artemis left, that if she choose the hero life, he would too. And that last goodbye, those foreboding words 'what could go wrong?' had been enough invitation for him.

If he had known how his life would end, he doubted he would have changed any of his actions. It was better this way, because he'd always feared that he'd be the one stroking Artemis' hair and murmuring sweet nothings to her as she faded.

Wally still hadn't gone to see Artemis since his death a week ago. He had hated watching her grieve from the ceiling where he crouched during the funeral, but he knew that if he tried to comfort her and she didn't see him, it would hurt even more.

Strange, how though the physical pain of the mortal world might be gone now, the hurt in his heart still throbbed on.

The speedster jerked himself back to the reason he had entered the sooty little clearing among the rubble of Mount Justice. It still was there - a weak yellow-orange gleam. He knelt in the gritty rock dust, appreciating for once that the soil didn't dig into his legs like it used to.

He brushed the dirt off the little thing, then scooped it up in one hand and held it to the light in the sky, investigating it. It was a necklace, a large topaz-colored gemstone pendant swinging from a black cord.

_Maybe... maybe I could leave this at Artemis' house, even if I don't see her. She won't be there just now; probably still staying at the League headquarters. She will have gone back to the hero life; it's what she always wanted._

Wally's mouth curved a little. Finally, he was out of the way and his little spitfire would have the life she deserved. He'd never bug Artemis with Vietnamese Lit papers again.

But this would be the last thing. He'd leave her the necklace, and maybe she'd understand that it was okay, that she could stop crying.

It didn't take him very long to get to her house. His astral form (oh, how he hated calling himself a _ghost_) had retained the superspeed that once characterized him, and he knew the streets well.

When he arrived on their doorstep, he didn't really know what to do. Walking through doors had become routine for him since the funeral and all the doors and walls in the morgue (hey, was it really that bad to have a fascination with what happened to your body in there? It was _science._) , but this one seemed different somehow.

He felt almost as if he would be upsetting a delicate balance once he stepped through the door uninvited. And yet, this type of balance wasn't exactly a comfortable one, because it meant that Artemis would keep grieving.

Come to think of it, he really didn't even know why he was leaving the necklace, and what he thought it would do. She would probably believe someone else left it.

Wally frowned, then took the dive and stepped through the thick oak door.

Inside, it was very quiet. The living room was empty, and the pillows on the couch were ruffled and tossed around. He bit his lip. Of course Artemis would spend more time in the anger stage of grief than in the others. What had he expected; crying, like at the funeral?

Then he turned around, and stumbled backwards in surprise, almost crashing into the couch.

_Artemis!_ Wally's mind cried, and his mouth almost followed suit.

_You'll scare the breath out of her! Keep your mouth shut,_ he scolded himself, but his eyes were fixed on Artemis.

The archeress was sitting in one of the chairs next to the table, and her face was resting on her arms, which were crossed on the tabletop. She wasn't moving at all, except for regular, even breaths interspersed with the occasional sob.

He bit his lip again.

_I can't... I can't not say _something_, _he finally decided.

"Artemis?"

Her head suddenly jerked up, and he saw her face for the first time since the funeral. She wore no makeup, and her eyes were bloodshot and the lids puffy. A few red streaks ran down her cheeks on either side of her nose.

"Wally?" The voice was incredulous, broken like he had never heard it before.

"I'm-I'm here to give you... something."

She suddenly noticed the necklace.

"Wha-what's that?" she asked suddenly, eyes wide in fear at the sight of the pendant dangling in midair.

"It's okay. I'm-I brought you this. Sort of... you know, make you feel better."

Artemis' voice was trembling now, an uncharacteristic vulnerability in it. "But you're gone, Wally! I watched... I watched you die."

"I'm sorry; I didn't ask you if I could come. Guess I wasn't invited," Wally managed, with a halfhearted grin.

"Why didn't you come sooner?" she asked, catching him completely off guard. He had asked himself that question many times, but never expected to be asked it by her. He curled his fingers around the necklace, wrapping the cord around his hand.

Suddenly, Artemis gasped.

"Wally!" she cried, as if she hadn't heard him before. She was staring. And not at the necklace; into his eyes.

"What happened?" Wally asked, as surprised as she was.

"I can... I can see you," she wavered, scraping her chair back and standing up.

Artemis slowly made her way to the other side of the room. In a second, her arms were around Wally, and he, shocked, took a moment to return the hug. It was so _warm. _A feeling he had not had for what seemed like forever.

"Don't do that again, Baywatch," Artemis gently scolded into his shoulder, but there were tears in both her eyes and voice.

"I'm sorry," he lamely apologized, but it didn't seem to matter that neither of them could say the right thing.

* * *

_'Til death do us part,_

_and then forevermore._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This isn't a chapter, but there's really no other way to say thank you to my reviewers.**

**Guest and Keepmovingforward2, thank you both so much! If you would come off anonymous, I could thank you properly, but since I can't now, I'm thanking you here. If you would be so kind as to give me your actual FF . net usernames, I could reply to your reviews, answer questions, etc. **

**Keepmovingforward2: I'm glad you think so! I'm writing a multichapter fic with Spitfire in the foreseeable future, if you would like to read more. You can find it on my profile; it's titled 'Eventuality'. **

**Guest: I'm not adding another chapter (done that too many times and ended up with a whole story to write) , so I can answer your questions. The necklace isn't keeping him alive; it's just changing his appearance (like it did with Artemis, sort of) enough that she can see him. And Artemis would be the only one able to see him, I suppose, just as only those closest to Artemis would be able to see what she really looked like after she became Tigress. **

**Hope that wasn't too long!**


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